How Russian neo-Nazi anti-gay kidnappers are using Facebook, Instagram and VK.com

Lt. Gen. Umnov (Умнов) is a very important man, whose even won awards for being such a great police chief in St. Petersburg.

So one has to wonder why it’s been so difficult to get Lt. Gen. Umnov to do his job, and break up an anti-gay Hitler-loving neo-Nazi gang that spends its Sunday afternoons kidnapping and torturing young gay men in St. Petersburg.

It’s not a terribly difficult job catching these people – the kidnappers not only film their victims and post the videos online, they also film their own faces during the abduction and torture. It’s not exactly forensic rocket science figuring out who they are.

Lt. Gen. Sergei Pavlovich Umnov (Сергей Павлович Умнов), the police chief of St. Petersburg, Russia, seems incapable of controlling his city’s neo-Nazi kidnapping gang. Or maybe he’s just unwilling to do his job.

So why won’t Lt. Gen. Umnov do his job? Is it that Lt. Gen. Umnov doesn’t think he has to defend the laws of Russia when gays are the victims? Or maybe Lt. Gen. Umnov is simply soft on Hitler?

It’s interesting that Lt. Gen. Umnov seems to have done little to stop the vigilante kidnappings by avowed Hilter-sympathizers. Russia has a rather proud history of fighting the Nazis during World War II, and winning, after a horrifically devastating Siege of Leningrad in which 1.5 million Russians died. You’d think Lt. Gen. Umnov would have a little respect for what is known in Russia as “The Great Patriotic War.” But it appears you’d be wrong.

UPDATE: Instagram pulls accounts of kidnap ringleader, ally

Instagram today pulled the account of St. Petersburg kidnapping ringleader Ekaterina Zigunova, and a close ally of her, Daniil Konovalov. Both were using their accounts to promote the Nazi cause, and Konovalov in particular was using his account to post racist attacks on black women as “monkeys,” and he posted a video of Zigunova’s putative “father,” Russian ultra-nationalist Maxim Martsinkevich, torturing a gay kidnap victim. More on this below.

Occupy Pedophilia and Ekaterina “Katya” Zigunova

Ekaterina Zigunova, head of “Occupy Pedophila – St. Petersburg,” is dreaming of a white Christmas.

The group calls itself “Occupy Pedophilia,” has 30 branches, and claims to have abducted near 1,500 gay Russians in its 18 month existence. This is one of Zigunova’s recent kidnappings, which I reported on in detail in yesterday’s story:

Planning today’s “safari,” as they call their anti-gay kidnappings

Mid-“safari,” Katya leads the interrogation and psychological torture – this victim was beaten as well

Zigunova brags to her victim about how many other gays she’s kidnapped and tortured before

Zigunova berates her victim

Zigunova and her Occupy Pedophilia – St. Petersburg henchmen interrogating yet another victim.

Zigunova and the boys have a hearty laugh after the victim says he will likely lose his family and his job once they post the video of his abduction, torture and interrogation online

Zigunova and her henchmen sharing a laugh over a gay victim who has just said he will lose his job if they publish the video of his interrogation. And they will publish it.

The head of the St. Petersburg branch, Zigunova, is also apparently a fan of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. Both of the photos below are from Zigunova’s profile on VK.com. In the first, she does a Nazi salute while making a Hitler moustache over her lip. In the second, she helps her friend Daniil Konovalov sell busts of Adolf Hitler, “our ideological mastermind.”

The use of social media, including Facebook, Instagram, and VK.com by Occupy Pedophilia to promote its crimes, and in some cases actually organize its crimes, was a disturbing discovery in researching this story.

One would imagine that Instagram wouldn’t take kindly to its service being used to disseminate videos showing the kidnapping and torturing of anyone, let alone a gay-bashing. But there it is. And it’s even a bit worse than that. In the comments alongside the video clip, others seems to be asking Konovalov when the full video will be released. Konovalov responds: “coming soon.” That would seem to suggest that Konovalov is posting this video approving of the crime, but also that he has some inside knowledge about the crime. Which potentially makes Konovalov a co-conspirator.

I’ve taken a copy of Konovalov’s vine (posted below) to show you what kind of people we’re dealing with, but also what Instagram is permitting on its service. The video shows Occupy Pedophilia’s national leader, Maxim Martsinkevich, interrogating and abusing a young man they’ve kidnapped. While Martsinkevich claims his victims are pedophiles, most of them are gay, and anti-gay epithets and symbols form a large part of his group’s kidnapping rituals.

Martsinkevich was recently arrested, but only because CNN did an expose on his nearly 1,500 claimed kidnappings over the past 18 months. The Russians had no choice but to finally take Martsinkevich him in. Up until now, the Russian authorities couldn’t have cared less that a nationwide ultra-right Hitler-loving vigilante organization had kidnapped nearly 1,500 people, mostly gay. But because CNN got involved, suddenly things changed.

But of course, this is Russia after all. The Russians didn’t charge Martsinkevich with even one of the anti-gay kidnappings. He was charged, instead, with insulting the memory of World War II. This, from a country that let’s neo-Nazis run rampant in St. Petersburg. Here’s Konovalov’s video posting on Instagram:

The connection between Zigunova, Konovalov, and Martsinkevich

Occupy Pedophilia national leader Martsinkevich claims, via his VK.com profile, to be the “father” of red-head Ekaterina Zigunova. And Zigunova claims on her VK.com profile to be Martsinkevich’s daughter. Their ages are too close (she’s around 24, he’s reportedly around 29). So I suspect they mean they are “ideological” family. Still, it’s interesting that Martsinkevich only lists two people as his “children” in the profile. One is Zigunova. And guess who the second one is? None other than Daniil Konovalov, our Hitler-bust salesman.

If Lt. Gen Umnov actually cared about doing his job, and investigating Martsinkevich’s larger criminal conspiracy involving the 30 Occupy Pedophilia branches across Russia and the Ukraine, there is no apparent better place to begin than Ekaterina Zigunova and Daniil Konovalov. As an aside, note that Martsinkevich lists his middle name as “Restrukt,” which is also his VK.com URL. Restrukt is an organization that Zigunova claims she works for in St. Petersburg, and we’ll learn later on, has a tie to Hitler, and is homophobic, as well.

How Martsinkevich uses Facebook to promote his gay kidnapping/torture videos

Which brings us back to the role social media, and specifically Facebook, Instagram and VK.com have played in helping Martsinkevich, Zigunova, and the rest of Occupy Pedophilia organized and promote their criminal enterprise.

Again, the question must be asked, why does Martsinkevich continue to even have a Facebook account after his Facebook account is being used to promote his own kidnappings and hate crimes? You’ll note that Martsinkevich himself stars in the video (he goes by the nickname “Slasher”).

But lest you think that’s the only gay-bashing kidnapping and torture video that Martsinkevich has published on his Facebook timeline, you’d be wrong. Here are five more of his kidnap videos being promoted in his Facebook timeline:

Whose gay kid do you have to kidnap and torture to actually lose your Facebook and Instagram accounts?

“Restrukt,” the project tied to Occupy Peodophilia, also has a Facebook page

Restrukt, the project associated with Occupy Pedophilia, also has a Facebook page. That page is used to promote Nazi Germany, anti-semitism, homophobia and the kidnapping the videos. The kidnapping videos alone are such a clear violation of Facebook’s terms of service that this account should be deleted. Why hasn’t it been?

Promoting hate crime kidnapping/torture videos – this alone should get the account closed down

Nazis and anti-semitism

Racism

Homphobia

Facebook responded to a user complaint about the Occupy Pedophilia related organization, Restrukt, violating its terms of service by posting a video of Occupy Pedophilia’s Maxim Martsinkevich kidnapping and torturing a gay man. Facebook says posting videos of gay youth being kidnapped and tortured doesn’t violate Facebook’s terms of service. Not only should the video be taken down, but when at least one of the lead admits working for Restrukt, and Restrukt then posts a video of one such kidnapping, the entire account should be deleted.

Just to remind you what Facebook says doesn’t violate their TOS – it’s a video of the abduction and torture of someone gay by the organization run by the woman who works for (or is) this group Restrukt. Slasher is Martsinkevich’s pen name. Oh, and the post is actually making an appeal for assistsance, so they’re actually using Facebook to further their criminal enterprise. That’s probably illegal as well as a violation of TOS.

Facebook and Instagram don’t hold a candle to the damage done by VK.com

Of course, Facebook and Instagram don’t hold a candle to Russia’s VK.com, where Occupy Pedophilia seems to coordinate most of its crimes.

Pavel Durov, founder of VK.com, a Russian social media site used by Russian ultra-nationalists to broadcast their gay-bashing videos and to execute their anti-gay attacks.

Another make-shift rainbow flag, and the Star of David, are both being used to mock and humiliate this kidnapping victim, who is apparently Jewish

And here Zigunova uses her own VK.com account to show a photo of her pouring urine on the head of one of her kidnap/torture victims:

If this is all about pedophilia, why the fixation on gay-bashing, Jews and Hitler?

Up until a few weeks ago, VK.com was run by Pavel Durov, a social media darling and multi-millionaire. He has sold his interest, though says publicly that he still has influence with the company. 99% of these postings happened during Durov’s tenure at VK.com.

And there’s even more from VK.com when you go through Zigunova’s account. What’s especially interesting to note is that Zigunova, and others, claims that this is all about catching pedophiles. They don’t have any problem with gays. If that’s true, then why do they keep posting virulently anti-gay and anti-semitic missives, and in the video I posted yesterday, Zigunova’s kidnapping cohorts kept calling their victim the Russian word for “faggot”? Not to mention, all the Hitler references?

But what’s more, here’s is Zigunova posting an anti-gay and anti-semitic screed about a Russian lesbian activist. The post urges people to harass the lesbian (you’ll find the translation in the caption of the photo):

Screenshot of Ekaterina Zigunova’s page on VK.com shows a post about Russian lesbian activist Natasha Tsymbalova. The writing says: “LGBT Zionist Natalya Tsymbalova. (link) I bet many want to say something to her. I ask you not to tell her nasty things. Maybe she’ll hear a nice manly voice and will be cured of faggotry. Call and tell her everything you think about her.”

And swastika coffee-stirrers:

And here is Pavel Smirnov, who helps Occupy Pedophilia-St. Petersburg plan and execute their kidnappings, posting about gays and AIDS on (of course) VK.com. The post reads:

“Homosexual activist gets AIDS and is currently in a hospital with a bad prognosis, thus proving that homosexuality=suicide.”

Yep, nothing anti-gay about that.

Occupy Pedophilia – St. Petersburg is using VK.com to help execute their kidnappings

But not content with simply promoting their hate crimes on VK.com, Occupy Pedophilia and Zigunova are using VK.com to help organize their “safaris,” as they call their abductions. Here’s a request they’ve posted for someone to provide them with a room in which they can torture their gay victims. They also are seeking young staff to help them lure and kidnap their gay victims.

I found all of this in one day. It wasn’t terribly hard to find out who some of the main players were, and to find evidence of their crimes and extremism. It also wasn’t terribly hard to find them using Facebook, Instagram and VK.com to promote their crimes, and in some cases to actually help them conduct their crimes.

Katya and and her cabal plan that day’s anti-gay kidnapping.

So you really have to ask yourself why Facebook, Instagram and VK.com have not yet scrubbed their services of any and all accounts tied to Occupy Pedophilia, its branches, it staff and its supporters? Does some gay teenager have to die during interrogation, or kill themselves as a result of their lives being destroyed, before Facebook, Instagram and VK.com help put a stop to this ongoing hate crime in their midst?

The 24 million Russians who died fighting the Nazis are watching , Lt. Gen. Umnov.

But there’s a special place in hell for Lt. Gen. Sergei Umnov. Russians like Lt. Gen. Umnov can’t be bothered to arrest neo-Nazi Hitler-lovers who serially kidnap Russian youths in order to torture them. Forget the fact that the Nazis ended up causing the deaths of 1.5 million people in St. Petersburg alone, and the deaths of between 18 million and 24 million Russians nationwide. Umnov apparently can’t be bothered to continue honoring a little thing like 24 million patriotic countrymen who died at the hands of the Nazis.

What does Umnov find time for instead? Arresting gay and trans Russians who are holding peaceful demonstrations in support of greater human rights in Russia.

Just last week, ten gay activists were arrested in Moscow, and four in St. Petersburg. The Moscow gays were simply holding rainbow flags and singing the Russian National Anthem. But do you know how many neo-Nazis have been arrested for kidnapping and torturing nearly 1,500 Russians in a massive anti-gay criminal conspiracy?

Zero.

How you can help

Find me the names of Zigunova’s henchmen

For starters, Zigunova’s henchman don’t seem terribly public with their names – and at times tried to hide their faces in the UK documentary I post earlier. That means it’s time we knew their real identities. If anyone can help crowd-source the names of Zigunova’s co-conspirators – you can start with the 13 men who helped her abduct the gay youth in the UK documentary. Her Facebook friends might prove useful as well.

Help publicize the abysmal failure of St. Petersburg police chief Lt. Gen. Sergei Pavlovich Umnov (Сергей Павлович Умнов) to do his job

Second, do whatever you can to help make Lt. Gen. Sergei Umnov publicly responsible for the catastrophe that his happening in St. Petersburg.

Russia is in many ways a lawless country. Yet in other ways, it’s a country that is all too happy to abuse the law to oppress those whom the government doesn’t like. The Putin-Umnov regime clearly likes its neo-Nazi gay-bashers – that is, until the gay-bashers become too much of a public liability. Thus, the reason that Maxim Martsinkevich was finally arrested after CNN reported on his 18 month crime spree. The price of letting Martsinkevich continue his rampage became more expensive than the benefit of letting him remain free.

And the same goes for Ekaterina Zigunova and her 13 criminal co-conspirators.

If Lt. Gen Sergei Umnov feels enough heat, sees his name getting dragged through enough mud, and if Moscow starts finding that Umnov’s appalling lack of interest in putting an end to these neo-Nazi hate crimes in his own jurisdiction is now reflecting badly on Russian President Vladimir Putin, you can bet Zigunova will be locked away with her “daddy” for years to come.

Tell Facebook, Instagram and VK.com that hate crimes are bad for business

I’m not a big believer in emailing companies and hoping they receive enough emails to care about your opinion. What these companies do care about is their public image. And the best way to affect their public image is to make sure that people know about this story, that they know that anti-gay neo-Nazi kidnapping gangs and their staff and their allies are using Facebook, and Instagram and VK.com, and urge those companies to do the right thing and finally purge themselves of this filth.

Freedom of speech is a wonderful thing. But I’ve never heard of a hate crime involving the kidnapping and torture of teenagers being called “freedom.” And it shouldn’t start now.

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John AravosisFollow me on Twitter: @aravosis | @americablog | @americabloggay | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn. John Aravosis is the editor of AMERICAblog, which he founded in 2004. He has a joint law degree (JD) and masters in Foreign Service from Georgetown (1989); and worked in the US Senate, World Bank, Children's Defense Fund, and as a stringer for the Economist. Frequent TV pundit: O'Reilly Factor, Hardball, World News Tonight, Nightline & Reliable Sources. Bio, article archive.

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These people travel, they do not stay in Russia all the time. If someone recognises them outside of the borders of Russia, they can always carry out a citizen’s arrest and then try to have them tried in any country under universal jurisdiction for hate crimes not prosecuted in the country of origin. Belgium is notorious for prosecuting by far the most foreigners for crimes committed in a third coutnry under universal jurisdiction (which is a positive international legal apparatus in force today).

Marcus Peabody

does anyone have contact email for maxim martsinkevich?

Marcus Peabody

thank you for posting the faces of these people. they all need bullets in their heads, and I’m sure someone will do that if we put the word out and ask. after all, what comes around, goes around. it’s called universal justice. DEATH to those who are the cause of hatred and persecution!

http://Overgrow.ning.com/ ElectroPig Von FökkenGrüven

Well, I guess there are still jobs available to those who are found to be too perverted to be accepted for the “feelin’ up granny tits and little boy balls” positions at the TSA after all. What a nice thought.

Newbie

Real surname of Ekaterina is not Zigunova, but Logunova. Zigunova is a fake name (from fascist greeting “Sieg Heil”, Siegunova).

StraightGrandmother

on her VK page she was advertizing to sub let her apartment, occupancy for March 1st but to come immediately to look at it as she was leaving for a business trip.

Ninong

A reputable poll showed that 80% of Russians agree with the new law banning propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations to minors. That was probably sold the same way the Mormons sold Prop. 8 by claiming that children in kindergarten and first grade would be taught all about gay sex. It wouldn’t suprise me to hear that the same people who pushed Prop. 8 were advisors to their counterparts in St. Petersburg when the council there passed the first Russian anti-gay propaganda law. Putin liked that law so much he decided to take it national a year later.

American fundies supported the virulently anti-gay legislation in Uganda, so it wouldn’t surprise me if they had a hand in the recent Russian legislation.
The majority of Russians think all gays are pedophiles. That’s the personal view of Patriarch Kirill and his BFF, Little Vlad. They both believe that gay marriage in Europe is a sign of the apocalypse. You might say that their beliefs mirror those of the majority of Russians and can be summed up as gays should neither be seen nor heard. They should be invisible. Let’s call it an extreme example of DADT.

They will tolerate gays as long as they don’t say anything that can be taken as either supportive or neutral about nontraditional relations. The only way they can do that is by staying deep in the closet. Technically, even a young gay person’s parents are in violation of the law if they say anything that is even neutral to him about his sexual orientation. The law doesn’t permit that. Nothing positive or neutral can be said about nontraditional sexual relations in the presence of minors.

http://adgitadiaries.com/ karmanot

But Scott Lively has so many closets he could be a living Russian doll.

http://adgitadiaries.com/ karmanot

In Russia all the best people are bigots. A generation ago she would have been a hit in Nuremberg.

Butch1

;-) That works for me as well.

PeteWa

I was thinking of a more Dexter approach, but to each their own… j/k

Butch1

Exactly. I would not cooperate with them in their videos and the minute they try to beat on me I would start beating back on them. This would not go well. I would not answer their questions or admit to anything they say to me. It would NOT go well. A well placed kick to the groin and if only these folk would learn martial arts and gain some confidence in themselves they could take on that room full of amateurs. This just sickens me.

PeteWa

if I were kidnapped, and they did this kind of thing to me, I would have a hard time not returning the favor with interest.

Ninong

“Volunteers must cooperate with the police in the fight against pedophiles, but they should not go too far and lynch.”

Butch1

Not that it matters, but I’m a male. Many people confuse me with being a woman. My grandma gave me that name when I was an infant because I was a huge baby and remained much bigger and stronger than the other kids my own age. Bullies never got away with much around me if I caught them picking on someone when I was growing up. I have never had much use for people like that and it bothers the hell out of me seeing this punk get away with this.

RMNCB

Found it :)

http://AMERICAblog.com/ John Aravosis

OH did she? Do you have a copy of it? Take screen shots or photos of everything. That would have been useful to have, do you have a copy?

http://AMERICAblog.com/ John Aravosis

She’s also convinced she won’t go prison, and on that account she might be right. That is unless we can make it too painful for the authorities to ignore her.

http://AMERICAblog.com/ John Aravosis

Using google translate, it’s not clear enough that she’s supporting them. Someone will need to translate it into proper english we can get a sense of how bad it is. Almost sounds like she’s criticizing them

luzzjl524

My
Uncle Zachary recently got a 9 month old Mercedes-Benz CL-Class CL63 AMG only
from working off a home pc… go now B­i­g­4­1­.­ℂ­o­m

Alex

That red girl went to Minsk (Belarus) now. (I guess she is afraid).
But actually it is not only her who does smth like that – there groups in 20 (!) russian cities of the kind.
And they are actually easy to find.
But Russian police does nothing and russian parliament even aproves these gangs.
Here is the blog of Olga Batalina – russian MP who aproves them. (It is not a joke!)http://www.vzsar.ru/blogs/1245 (it is in Russian – use translator)
And (surprise) she is the one of authors of anti-gay laws in Russia.

ImTalkinToYou

Wow, I actually used to think that Russians were hardy, no nonsense types. But if they let these type of pathetic, cowardly, gay bashing neo-Nazi sympathisers openly walk about in their society doing whatever they like… then they’re a weak, lawless and pathetic society gone wrong. You shame your forefathers and everything they fought two world wars for.

goulo

Hi, it looks like you may be right; after a bit of searching, I see several recent Polish articles mentioning Mark Regnerus and his “study”. (FWIW my Polish is not yet very good so I’m also getting help from automatic translation.) Here are 3 I explored; they seem at quite different places along the spectrum of skepticism and acceptance of his article.

http://www.psychologia.net.pl/artykul.php?level=710
This one seems to actually be a dispassionate academic historical article about the controversy surrounding the article, including arguments about the flawed techniques used by Regnerus. It mostly seems to be presenting an ambiguous “fair and balanced” sort of “for and against” series of statements as far as my cursory reading of it goes.

http://ruchlgbt.pl/news/prof-mark-regnerus-srednio-co-trzecie-dziecko-wychowywane-przez-ojca-geja-lub-matke-lesbijke-jest-homo/
This one spends several paragraphs repeating the sensationalist assertions of Regnerus and even supportively quotes some other Polish researcher who takes Regnerus seriously, yet surprisingly in the end, this article then notes that Regnerus has been criticized for his homophobia and so one should not blindly accept his research. So I’m not sure in the end if this article is intending to just report about the controversy, or is intending to be homophobic with support from Regnerus while paying lip service to the fact that Regnerus is homophobic and thus perhaps not totally objective…

Ninong

Either Katya doesn’t understand English or she’s completely and totally delusional because she posted that entire 48-minute BBC documentary on her VK page because she likes it.

A few days ago, I reported an Ekatriana post about “fags” and Facebook took it down, but left her page up.

There’s also a “Stop Ekatriana…” group, but a lot of the commentary on that is so violent and hateful, that it struck me as something I wouldn’t associate with, and actually counter-productive.

RMNCB

Thanks for this!

http://AMERICAblog.com/ John Aravosis

Quite possibly. VK is tough because it’s not hosted here. We’d need an internet lawyer on that one. FB is American. Hopefully they pull down the accounts on Wednesday. I’ve reported the violations to Facebook, so let’s see.

Ninong

St. Petersburg is the birthplace of Russia’s new law against “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations to minors.” Their current governor, Georgy Sergeyevich Poltavchenko ( Георгий Серге́евич Полтавченко ) was appointed in August 2011 and in March 2012 he approved the new local law criminalizing the “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations to minors.”

Putin liked that law so much he copied it almost word for word and had his rubber-stamp Duma pass it 438-0, with 1 abstention, out of 450 members. I wonder how that one Duma member who abstained is doing today?

Remember, the regional governors are no longer elected. Dmitri Medvedev approved direct elections of governors in 2012 and Putin reversed that in 2013. Governors are now selected from a list of candidates approved by Putin. Less democracy, more dictatorship. Priceless!

Ninong

It was the governor of St. Petersburg who first pushed through and signed an anti-gay propaganda law. St. Petersburg is the birthplace of Russia’s anti-gay legislation. Putin simply copied what they did and made it the law throughout the Russian Federation.

Early in his current term Putin reversed the concession Dmitri Medvedev made in 2012 that allowed for the direct election of regional governors. From now on the governors will be appointed from a list of candidates approved by Putin. Less democracy, more dictatorship. Russian people admire that as strong leadership! Remember that this is the country that actually begged Ivan the Terrible to return. Many of them long for the days when Stalin was in charge!

Ninong

Still works for me, too.

Ninong

Right and if you check through his more than 3,500 pictures posted on VK, one of them shows a small round table with bottles of anabolic steroids and a syringe with the caption, “Vitamins.”

Ninong

I completely agree with your description of him as “a sadistic bastard.” I think he’s Nazi-obsessed. He’s constantly bragging about his Nazi SS grandfather and taking selfies wearing a Nazi SS uniform.

He used to have two large Nazi flags in his bedroom, one on the wall and the other one hanging on the inside of his bedroom door. I believe the police tore those up and left them in his apartment after they raided it this last time. They took away his computer and boxes of “evidence” but left torn Nazi flags for the Russian media to film.

StraightGrandmother

And they use Disqus on that Matt Barbour site with the Scott Lively Article.

Tom in Lazybrook

Good work John. I have a question regarding facebook and VK. Aren’t there laws about broadcasting crimes or profiting from those crimes? Is there any actionable case that we can take place in a US court regarding facebook earning revenue due to the ad sales on his page, for example?

http://www.rebeccamorn.com/mind BeccaM

Whatever his orientation, he’s clearly a sadistic bastard who enjoys torturing other men and teenaged boys.

http://www.rebeccamorn.com/mind BeccaM

One of the known side-effects of steroid abuse is atrophy…

http://www.rebeccamorn.com/mind BeccaM

I hope one day they decide to support Android tablets. Not all of us mobile users out here buy Apple products.

http://www.rebeccamorn.com/mind BeccaM

Online petitions almost never generate the kind of attention required to translate into action.

Big stories in the media with headlines like “Facebook and Instagram approve of Nazi groups, repeatedly claim videos and photos of actual hate crimes do not violate terms-of-service” have a far greater chance of working.

http://www.rebeccamorn.com/mind BeccaM

Scott Lively is a homophobic douche-nozzle with all the charm and positive karma of a Guinea Worm parasite.

StraightGrandmother

Russia has attacked a Channel 4 film about attacks on homosexuals in
the country, saying a similar documentary could have been made about
abuse towards redheads in Britain.

‘Hunted’, a documentary about gangs who abduct and beat gay men and
women, is part of a “well-engineered campaign of slander” timed to
coincide with the Winter Olympics, Russia’s embassy in London said.

Putting certain symbols and patterns into a comment will send one off to moderation hold; it’s not personal and can happen to any of us (and has). In this case, I’m guessing all those Twitter handles caused it.

As ever, if a comment doesn’t appear, wait a little while.

StraightGrandmother

Lower left I believe. I was on an iPad for 6 weeks until just a few days ago.
You click on that icon and the site comes to the desktop version. It is the best of both worlds if you ask me.

StraightGrandmother

Can you get me links on Mark regnerus infamous study being posted in Poland?
I have many, I have to use Google translate and it is very tedious work.
If you could get me some more that would be great. For some reason I sense an upsurge of that study showing up recently in Poland.

Bill_Perdue

The growth of the neo-nazi movement in states of the former USSR is entirely due to the total corruption of the Stalinist regime which left the vast majority of Russian workers so disgusted that they stood by or participated in the dissolution of the Russian workers state.

Since then a new regime of gangster capitalists under the leadership of a former Stalinist KGB cop, Putin, who’s moved Russia to the right and opened a Pandora’s Box of homophobia in order to divert attention from large scale economic problems, the problem of holding on to colonies in places like Chechnya and the wholesale looting of the wealth of the nation.

This naturally creates real openings to form alliances between the Russian left, trade unions and our brothers and sisters in Russia.

I scrolled back up after reading your comment to see your name, “Butch1″ LOL, kinda funny (said in a nice way Butch). Your comment sorta goes along with your Forum name.

StraightGrandmother

Becca we need to get an inside guy/gay at these Social Media companies. Somebody with a telephone that our Gay Rights Groups can call directly instead of going through this usual bullshit.

StraightGrandmother

I confess I did not watch any of the videos, I have seen so many already that John has posted, I just couldn’t.

StraightGrandmother

My perfectly good comment after I edited it, got sent to moderation and looks like it got deleted. Sigh, well just have to re-type it and no going back and editing it.
I did the only thing i could think of since I don’t know about instagram etc.
I tweeted ANONYMOUS and asked for help. They have the skill set to do this type of work.
I queried Twitter and tweeted these Top Anonymous twitter accounts. the first one has over a million followers.
@YourAnonNews
@GroupAnon
@AnonyOps
@anonops
I would ask anyone with a Twitter Account to tweet to these ANONYMOUS accounts I wrote
” We NEED Anonymous on the 1,500 Gay Tortures documented by a Russian Ganghttp://americablog.com/2014/02/russian-police-chief-sergei-umnov-letting-hitler-loving-anti-gay-kidnappers-go-free.html”

Now I’ll go read all your comments.
But before I do my Deepest Sncere Appreciation to John Aravosis. I follow several sports writers who are at the Olympics right now, I’ll tweet them out this story.

Thom Allen

Maybe Pat Robertson could go over there on a mission and show them some of the rings that he mentioned in a famous sermon on an infectious disease, you know, just for teaching purposes.

DCM70508

Somehow, I expected more news coverage about LGBT stories during the Olympics. But either there aren’t many problems, or there just hasn’t been much coverage about it. Thank you John for your reporting – Americablog is one of the few news sites that I’ve seen covering gay issues now. I need all your help to get the word out about a fundraising campaign I created to support the Russian LGBT movement. The campaign is on the Indiegogo crowdfunding site, and we offer rewards for campaign backers (designer t-shirts and other things). Your contributions to the campaign go directly to the Russia Freedom Fund, managed by the Arcus Foundation in NYC. Please check out the campaign, make a donation to help the Russian LGBT community, and receive your rewards. The campaign weblink is http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/russian-lgbt-rights-and-equality-t-shirt/x/6309466 Thanks! Daniel

http://www.rebeccamorn.com/mind BeccaM

Sometimes I have to wonder exactly who they have reviewing submitted ToS complaints, and if they’re paid based not on whether they’re actually doing their jobs but in number of complaints processed — with just denying the complaint being the fastest way to rack up the totals.

Same here…..Donate to AB—-some of the best journalism around. What Rachel Maddow is afraid to do, John does in spades!

http://adgitadiaries.com/ karmanot

Hypothetically of course.

MechaSacanagem

I contested my response, and included some of the nazi links. Hope that helps.

Idiots.

http://adgitadiaries.com/ karmanot

Facebook needs to be front and center of bad publicity. They are enabling and complicit in anti-gay/Jewish bigotry, racism, torture, even death. Russians are showing themselves to be a medieval sewer not ready for civilized inclusion in advanced societies.

http://adgitadiaries.com/ karmanot

Well done! As for Facebook, Instagram and VK.co, congratulations media, you have out done Goebbles.

Butch1

I imagine you are correct. I just cannot fathom any reason for rolling over and doing nothing, though and letting these little weasels get away with this. That’s my thinking and I am not in their environment so it’s hard to say.

Butch1

Yes, this can be a major problem. I was also referring to that male hood in all of the pictures that is doing all the torturing and bullying.

If the police will not do their jobs, then perhaps gays should be stealthful about choosing their attacks and not getting caught doing it. I still think they should not become helpless and learn to defend themselves from being attacked. Perhaps it is me but I cannot stand by and let people do this to me, police, or no police. I would fight back and get in my licks. They would have bruises as well. They are cowards who have to work in gangs and packs and will not fight one on one unless they have broken the spirit of the individual. This is what looks like has happened or that brute only picks on people he knows he can beat up. From the pictures you have presented, he is either larger than his victim or they are older and weaker than he. The woman you have mentioned is definitely a sadist. Is she working for the government? ;-)

http://blogvader.tumblr.com/ Blogvader

I’m glad you’re reporting so much of this, John. I haven’t seen any info on it in most places.

But it is really !@#$ing hard to watch. My heart goes out to all of these people.

Alex

You’d better find all af them in Vc.com And there are much more of them…

So Facebook is the neo-Nazi social network? Good to know. Have their shareholders and advertisers been informed?

http://www.rebeccamorn.com/mind BeccaM

Good. I’m glad you’re turning over all these rocks to expose the vile slime under them. Even though I literally cannot read the posts in one go.

http://www.rebeccamorn.com/mind BeccaM

A common feature of authoritarian fascist regimes is the existence of both quasi-legal and extra-legal thugs to enforce oppression. Quasi-legal in that there will be those who appear to be empowered by the government to be thugs, and extra-legal like these neo-Nazi monsters who with a wink and a nod are permitted to go on their rampages.

I’m not surprised that they’re going after all of the usual minority groups — gays, Jews, immigrants. Fear and terror is a means of exercising control. Even those not immediately targeted know not to step out of line, lest the thugs be unleashed on them as well.

The fact they’re openly Hitler-worshipers is probably considered a desired feature, since for many Russians with any memory of history at all, Nazis are the ultimate boogey-men.

In a way, Umnov is probably doing his job, as defined by his superiors: To permit the kidnappings, assaults, and murders to go on.

http://AMERICAblog.com/ John Aravosis

I read a lot of online outrage from Brits as well. No idea how to donate. Let me ask. That’s a great idea.

I was speechless after yesterday’s report on that UK documentary. All I could think to do was
go to paypal-not much, but a lot for me. I’d like to wire something to help that guy who lost an eye
and maybe some of the others now out of work (mid-winter!) if any of the LGBT groups over there
are in a position to receive financial assistance? Didn’t sleep too well last night, likely not tonight
either. Best I can do for now is thank you for your and the gang’s brilliant work.
Do you have any idea what the Brit reaction was to the “documentary”? What are you hearing
from others who don’t subscribe to this blog? Where is that “army” of investigative reporters!
My totally unscientific survey re yesterday’s olympics coverage left me with the uneasy feeling
the media have pretty much caved and our young folk mesmerized by the whole dog and pony
show… Czar Putin may actually be getting his money’s worth with that 50b makeover…

PeteWa

small? I can’t see anything there at all, he looks smooth, like a ken doll.

FLL

Excellent sleuthing. I hope these efforts bring a certain tipping point closer, the tipping point the world saw after WWII and after the Balkan Civil War of the 1990s: the tipping point at which the hunter becomes the hunted.

So . . . Putin is the New Hitler? It looks that way to me when I realize that the Russian government is not protecting its gay citizens and, more to the point, is enabling this pogrom by not moving against the perpetrators. Silence gives consent.

MechaSacanagem

I’ve reported “Restrukt” twice to FB, and twice got back this response:

“Thank you for taking the time to report something that you feel may violate our Community Standards. Reports like yours are an important part of making Facebook a safe and welcoming environment. We reviewed the page you reported for containing hate speech or symbols and found it doesn’t violate our Community Standards.
Note: If you have an issue with something on the page, be sure to report the content (ex: a photo), not the entire page. That way, your report will be more accurately reviewed.”

Sent FB a few of their Nazi links, see if that helps.

http://heimaey.us/ heimaey

Not going to do it or organize it, but I’d love to see them get a taste of their own medicine.

PeteWa

unfortunately, if anyone fights back, there is little doubt in my mind who will end up going to jail.

http://AMERICAblog.com/ John Aravosis

Why isn’t she in jail? Because Lt. Gen. Sergei Pavlovich Umnov (Сергей Павлович Умнов), the police chief of St. Petersburg, Russia, refuses to do his job.

PeteWa

the negative justice side of me wants them to suffer that which they are inflicting, but what I really want to see happen is to have them caged like the rabid cretins they are.

http://AMERICAblog.com/ John Aravosis

Oh trust me, my heart wants much more. But that would be wrong, so we don’t talk about that :)

http://AMERICAblog.com/ John Aravosis

Something is going on. Their group site Restrukt some people are seeing gone from FB as well. It’s possible they’re gone, but with FB super-caching things it’s taking a while to propagate. Time will tell. Stay vigilant.

PeteWa

I’m talking about having them put in the hague, or the gulag, or whatever.
a random beating isn’t going to do much.

Why isn’t this bully, punk in jail? I wish gays in this country would get their confidence back, learn martial arts and start traveling in groups. They don’t have to be overtly gay, though it may help to draw out one of these homophobic goons so they could defend themselves properly with a wee bit of payback time. If they ever have the fortune to see this scumbag alone, he would deserve to be kidnapped himself. As much as I hate violence, “What’s sauce for the goose; is sauce for the gander.” There is nothing redeemable about this person or any of his cohorts.

Perhaps, if there were a decent police force they could be arrested, convicted for their crimes against innocent people and sent off to a Siberia work camp for a very long time. They need to be on the short end of the stick. I’m heart broken seeing these pictures and not being able to do anything about it. Of course being older has also decided that as well, though I would not let these punks do this to me regardless of age.

http://heimaey.us/ heimaey

I would love to get a vigilante group to go over there, hunt them down and beat the shit out of them.

Great work again, John. My first thought was that your crowdsourcing appeal for info on the ringleaders could go on VK.com in Russian. And then, I stopped to remember that recently arrested activists were intercepted before beginning a protest, because of deep surveillance of their phone and online activity.

This is another great example of how all-encompassing the so-called “propaganda to youth” ban actually is: Russians who post a link to this piece (or any neutrality or non-violence towards gays) will be guilty of violating the law.

http://AMERICAblog.com/ John Aravosis

That’s intg. Shalis. Sure, I wasn’t thinking, like Shalikashvili :)

http://liberawheeler.blogspot.com/ Elijah Jacob Shalis

My dad was born in Ukraine in 1939 and remembers the tank battles between the russians and the nazis outside his house. He comes from a family that supported the csar. He is very supportive of me and my sexuality.

http://AMERICAblog.com/ John Aravosis

And that’s why I think gays over there are not fighting back. The govt hates you, and is at least tacitly in collusion with the neo-nazi gangs. You know if you fight back, they’ll both come to get you, and you’re in a society where if anyone finds out about you, you could lose your job and family. It’s very Soviet in many ways – the entire society and govt apparatus is against you. Though I agree with you, if I were born a gay Russian, these folks wouldn’t know what hit them.

http://liberawheeler.blogspot.com/ Elijah Jacob Shalis

small penis, no wonder

http://liberawheeler.blogspot.com/ Elijah Jacob Shalis

The irony is that I bet if we had a bunch of gay body builders beat them up the body builders would be arrested. What happened to Russia? Thank you for finding out Katya’s real name and doing this piece. We need to push the State Department to do something on this issue. Lets ask our Ambassador to Russia to issue a statement on the beating up of gay youth.

James

Can you provide some contact links?

http://AMERICAblog.com/ John Aravosis

I use an ipad and we used onswipe for a reason – 33% of our traffic is mobile and we needed a mobile design to accomodate that. And onswipe is actually quite easy to navigate once you use it a few times. In any case, there’s a small button in the corner, I believe upper right on ipad, that you click – looks like a home or a tv or something – and it brings you to the normal site on ipad.

http://AMERICAblog.com/ John Aravosis

Thanks, Will.

MJL

please continue this John. please keep this up so that way no one can ignore it and that Russia continues to feel the pressure.

http://AMERICAblog.com/ John Aravosis

As I just mentioend to someone else, I think these things are best addressed publicly, by a big story like this that gets their attention. I don’t think emails from facebook users, or instragram users matters to most companies. They care about publicity.

http://AMERICAblog.com/ John Aravosis

I know people at Facebook. This kind of thing is better done publicly, than via emails from readers, etc. BIg companies don’t like big bad publicity. I’ll contact them directly myself as well.

cc423

Every time I try and contact Facebook, I feel like any message is just going into some vast server somewhere where it will never see the light of day… anyone know of an effective way of contacting them? Thanks!

http://AMERICAblog.com/ John Aravosis

I think he’s missing his heterosexuality,.

hidflect

No one ever accused the Russians of being soft. These people probably believe they’re being restrained and overly humane by not killing their victims.

Phil

Could you provide the most efficient contact information to report this to Facebook and the others? Have you thought about starting an on-line petition?

Will Dollinger

You got that right Houston

Will Dollinger

Work like this is why I donate to AmericaBlog. Congratulations John on a spectacular job on pushing this story forward. Thank you!

Lawerence Collins

It’s just like the days after segregation. Most cops still hated black prople and wouldn’t lift a finger to help them. It’s still like that in a lot of places. Think of the traffic stop stories in New Mexico, where the cops forced X-rays and enemas, supposedly looking for drugs. In reality the victims were driving while being minorities.

goulo

There are some neo-Nazi idiots in Poland too. Occasionally one sees graffiti swastikas and the like, and they organize occasional marches waving their stupid white power flags with Nazi-esque black symbols on white and red backgrounds.

And as Americablog posted recently, neo-Nazi idiots in France recently marching and shouting anti-Jewish slogans while they did Nazi salutes.

Bizarre psychology at work there, that people in countries who suffered so much at the hands of the Nazis would spawn neo-Nazis.

caphillprof

There is apparently some sort of Stockholm syndrome involved in war. Apparently not all the Russians despise the Nazis, some actually admire them. So too here: while I was in the 1950s cinema cheering when the Americans arrived to defeat the Reich in movie after movie, little Dick Cheney was yearning to torture like the Reich and eventually got his opportunity in Baghdad and Guantanamo. And how do we explain the WWII memorial on the Mall? Albert Speer could not have produced a better monument to the Reich.

caphillprof

And the capitalists (facebook, instagram, etc.) who aid and abet it.

Houston frustrated

I hate onswipe. If the writers actually used an iPad, they would never subscribe to this feature.

The article in the economist forced the Russians to take action but it was only to make the criminals change the name and operate less blatantly. The founder of the group is politically connected but they are tolerated because they perform attacks on Putin’s enemies.

Putin has formed and then disbanded a series of ‘youth movements’ whose purpose is to ‘own the streets’ if a popular uprising is threatened. Beating up gays is just a way of telling the rest of the population that they are willing to use violence and the police will do nothing.

goulo

Outstanding report about some really hateful disturbed people and the corrupt legal system which lets them continue their Nazi thuggery. Thanks for helping shed some light on them; hopefully it will help.

gay frankfurt.

I think this is the reason he has these problems. He is missing something.